What is speech? What’s the big deal about being able to talk? Very rarely do we stop to think about how amazing the ability to speak to someone really is. Could you imagine a world where there were no language, no writing and no other form of communication outside of grunts and yelling and cooing at each other? Life as we know it would not exist… Our world would literally be exactly like that of our primate neighbors.
There are some significant differences between “us” and “them” and we as a species have developed into the amazing creatures we are today largely due to two major evolutionary breakthroughs.
1. The development of our species specific articulatory system that functions under specific, conscious control. Primate call systems are largely controlled by caudal mid-brain structures (these are for the most part subconscious, stimulus/response parts of the brain and not directly under our conscious control). Therefore these call systems are directly expressive of emotions such as fear, aggression, alarm, contact seeking, etc…
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One of the highest orders of social functioning is our ability to communicate and convey information through our speech. With such a complex system, where do you even begin to understand how we develop an utterance during a conversation? If you are going to be an effective communicator it is necessary for you to have some knowledge about where exactly the sentences are coming from when your mouth speaks them…
Not to worry though, I have taken on the burden of drudging through these massive, boring and dry books on neuroscience, neurolinguistics and neurocognition to bring you the functional and abridged version to the “Speaker Blueprint”. Until we meet again…
David J. Parnell | Communication Expert
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